HYDERABAD: The state government's hope of raising a substantial amount from landregularisation scheme may be dashed if things are any indication. Till date district collectors have mostly received applications for the regularization of illegal house plots (government land encroached by individuals) measuring below 125 sq yards. As per government's recent scheme, it's free to legalise plots of this size.

The government recently announced the regularization scheme expecting that it would fill the coffers of the state by way of penal amounts. The government expects to net Rs 1,000 crore by the end of regularization of land. However, ground reality is different.

For instance, in Serilingampally mandal which is considered a prime real estate location where hundreds of acres have been encroached, only six applications have been received for regularization of house plots which attract penal fee.

The mandal office has received a total of 7,765 applications of which 7,759 have sought the regularization of land area below 125 sq yards.

Similarly, Qutubullapur mandal received an overwhelming response with 23,513 applications but only 18 applications fall in the category that attract penal fee. Official sources said Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad districts were being considered crucial for raising revenue through regularization. Since open land is more easily available in RR district, the state government hoped to earn substantial revenue from there.

All mandals of RR district together received about 46,000 applications. Of which 120 sought regularization of land above 125 sq yards. While 3741 applications have been received in Balanagar, 2206 in Hayatnagar, 2296 in Saroornagar and 1306 applications from Rajendranagar.

Official figures reveal that the scheme has yielded a measly sum of Rs 92 lakh (25 per cent initial payment received at them time submitting applications) since December 30. "We expected several hundreds of crores as several thousands of acres are under the clutches of land grabbers," a senior revenue official of RR district said.

While tehsildar of Serilingampally D Srinivas Reddy hopes they have time till January 19, some revenue authorities say land encroached were vacant and the present scheme covers only buildings on encroached government land.

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